USA > California > Sonoma County > History of Sonoma County : including its geology, topography, mountains, valleys, and streams > Part 33
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Early in the year, the much vexed question of creek navigation was taken up, and a steam dredge set to work to deepen the channel; this was not the work of the corporation, however, but that of Mr. Minturn of the steamboat company. He purposed making the creek navigable only as far as the point known as the Italian garden, where he would place the steamer landing, the balance he left with the citizens. At this period the question of the horse railroad from that point was again mooted, and a committee composed of Messrs. Lamberton, Overton, Baylis, Lougee, Barnes, Ordway, and Sawyer, were appointed to draft a bill to be submitted at a meeting to be subsequently convened. On the 4th March such meeting was duly held and the approval of the bill was unanimously signified by the assembly. Its provisions were that H. J. May, Charles M. Baxter, William Kohl, and those whom they may associate with them, shall lay out a railroad, on which horses and mules shall be used, from the Italian garden to any point in Petaluma, provided that the road shall not extend north of Washington street. It further provided that the corporation shall collect passage and freight on said road, the rate to be fixed by the Trustees of the city of Petaluma, which shall not be less than eighteen per cent. a year on the amount of capital invested, unless by consent of the company, giving them the right to so collect for twenty years. It also provided that the work on the road shall be commenced within six months, and com- pleted within twenty-two months. In this enterprise the city had not been asked to render any assistance; individual enterprise alone appeared in the work which should apparently have been taken hold of by the community; how it prospered will, in the course of our labors, be shown. In the month of March a bill to amend the charter of Petaluma was laid before the Legis- lature. In reporting the movement the Alta of the 11th of that month says: "Mr. Reed moved to suspend the rules, consider engrossed, on part or final passage. Mr. Dudley, of Placer, asked for the reading of the bill, and after it was read, he characterized it as a most extraordinary bill. It proposed to allow the city to exact licenses from billiard tables, dram-shops, etc., and he thought it would interfere with the general revenue law. He moved to'recommit it to the delegation from Sonoma for revision: Mr. Reed said it was in no respect an extraordinary bill, and did not conflict with the
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revenue law at all. It simply asked the same privilege for Petaluma that was enjoyed by San Francisco, Sacramento, and all the other cities. The motion to suspend the rules was sustained, and the bill passed," We repro- duce from the Journal of May 30, 1862, an article which goes far to show the attitude of public feeling, on the subject of the city charter a decade after the settlement of the town was commenced. "Since discussions of many important enterprises had, of late among our citizens have invariably closed in the expression that nothing at present can be done, while at the same time all have admitted the necessity of the measures we have made bold to express, wherein lays the cause of nonaction; and as a result almost always find that the assistance and co-operation of Petaluma as an incorpor- ated people, is needed; but that, being restricted by its charter in its action, is powerless for good, and thus in its shackled condition, all large enter- prises needing its endorsement, fall palsied, still-born, to the ground. A glance at the charter and we are convinced that powerless indeed is Peta- luma, as an incorporated city, for the accomplishment of any great result. Like a child has she been bound; no tool of cunning placed in its hands but its effective edge is first carefully rounded off, lest, forsooth, it cuts its fingers, and there be a doctor's bill to pay.
" We have no disposition to rebuke those individuals who first conceived the idea of restricting the city in its action; but we are free to say that such a course was a decided protest to the great principles of republican government, "that the people are able to govern themselves." It has always been a principle of law that when power is given to individuals and bodies to do certain acts, that all minor powers necessary to perform these acts, go with the gift. In Petaluma's case, however, the rule has been changed; she has been made a city in name, privileges vested in'her to do certain things, but the means for doing, no matter what the wishes of the people, are carefully and wisely (?) taken from her. How like the child is she, whose father sends her to school to be educated, but fails to pro- vide the necessary books to learn from; or the mechanic that is expected to execute a fine piece of work, but has neither the tools nor material to do it with.
" Such is the condition of Petaluma, her hands tied to the performance of every great work. Better by far would it be that she had no pretensions at all, rather than a vain sounding title, without the means to adorn it and make it useful. Her means must be frittered away in half finished founda- tions, whilst the superstructure never is raised. The objection has been offered that the city might be run in debt if her people, through their Trustees, were permitted to do such things as her wants really demand. If such is the fear, and if that is a good reason for the restriction, why have a city at all? Why not remain as a township, with the County Supervisors to judge and provide for our wants as they deem necessary.
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HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
As a conclusion, we may remark that there are many enterprises which, if they had a few years since been carried through, would by this time have paid for themselves by taxation on the increased value of property, besides the largely increased one of population and business. No more appropriate occasion than the present has ever presented itself in which to make a movement for the abandonment of the narrow-minded policy which has so long governed us. The disputed land claim upon which our city rests, about to be settled, the individual enterprise of some of our citizens invite the the people to step forth and declare, that to govern themselves they need not be restricted by others."
Let us now continue our note of events: On the night of the 10th April, a fiendish attempt to destroy the city prison by fire was made by an intoxicated person named Crane. Fortunately for him the flames were dis- covered in sufficient time to check their progress, else he would have perished on a pyre of his own raising. Again, on Thursday July 3d, the first con- "flagration of any magnitude which the city had experienced broke out in a building occupied by Mr. Pierson. Although the fire company labored man- fully, yet, spite of all efforts, the property belonging to Mr. Pierson, that of William Ayres, occupied by R. Lansdon as a livery stable, and the Artesian Water Works of Mr. Armstrong were burned to the ground, considerable damage being also done to the premises of the Sonoma County Journal and others. The losses on the occasion were not far short of three thousand dollars.
Among all the prospects for the future in which the mind of man is engrossed, unlooked for death occasionally steals in to prove that we are but mortal. On the 30th of January, 1862, Doctor S. W. Brown, one of the earliest of the city's residents, was struck down in the full strength and vigor of a useful life, esteemed, respected, and sorrowed for by all. He was a native of Hartford, Connecticut, and at the time of his death was about sixty years of age. He emigrated to California in 1849, and located in Sacra- mento, where he continued to reside until the Spring of 1852, at which time he removed to Petaluma, where he had since resided. He was a man of much literary attainment, and a warm friend of education, and had been untiring in his efforts for its advancement in this city. In 1860 he was a candidate on the Republican ticket for State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
" So live, that when thy summons comes to join The innumerable caravan that moves To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death, Thou go not, like the quarry slave, at night Seourged to his dungeon; but sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."
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HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
At this period of her existence Petaluma entered into a career of prosper- ity unequalled by any portion of her past history. The first real estate sales of any moment which had taken place in two years indicated flattering prospects for the future; while wood shanties made way for more substan- tial fabrics, notable among these being the removal of the American Hotel back a distance of sixty feet, and the contemplated substitution of a three- storied brick edifice. This building was finished and ready for the occupa- tion of guests early in 1863. In addition to these signs of prosperity we should not omit to mention that in this year (1862) the city was well stocked with mechanical establishments; of these enterprises there being, the black- smithing and wheelwright shops of William Ordway, the tannery of Mr. Bailey, the carriage and blacksmith emporium of Fritsch, Zartman & Co., the foundry and machine shop of Hatch & Cobb; and in East Petaluma, the match factory under charge of Mr. Hutchings. Another indication of pros- perity which made itself apparent at this time was the fact of their being so few unoccupied houses, while all through the town signs of increase in building accommodation was to be seen. Once more the incendiary's black- ened hand had been to work! On the 7th November, the Petaluma Steam Flouring Mills, situated at the north end of Main street, were totally destroyed by fire, notwithstanding every effort was made to save them by the Fire Department. The building was erected by Veatch & Hutchinson, in 1857, at a cost of upwards of twenty thousand dollars.
On March 7, 1863, the records of the city announce the election of T. F. Baylis and A. P. Mallory as Chief and Assistant Engineers of the Fire Depart- ment, and on April 20th, the annual election of city officers was held, when the following body corporate was chosen : Board of Trustees, O. Sweetland, President; Lee Ellsworth, John Shroufe, William Ordway, and H. L. Weston ; Recorder, Josiah Chandler; Marshal, John Cavanagh; Treasurer, F. T. Maynard; Assessor, T. K. Wilson ; Street Commissioner, J. M. Lightner; Clerk, F. D. Colton. At the session succeeding the election the thanks of the meeting were tendered to W. D. Bliss, the retiring President, for the dignity and impartiality with which he had presided over their deliberations during his term of office. A report of the Committee appointed to investi- gate the working of the ordinance relative to the Fire Department was accepted on May 25th, while on the day following a law was passed granting to C. M. Baxter and others the right to erect gas works and lay pipes through the streets of the city. On November 9th, a petition was presented by certain citizens to be allowed to erect a bridge over the ravine at the junction of Fifth and Sixth streets; a Committee was appointed to investigate the necessity of such, and reported adversely, but recommended the substitution of a few planks to be placed across the chasm at that point ; however, on December 14th, the bridge was finally ordered to be constructed, the city furnishing the material, notwithstanding the willingness of the resi- dents in that section to defray the cost thereof.
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HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
About half-past four o'clock on the morning of February 18, 1863, the bell again rang out its clarion tones to arouse the slumbering firemen. The Petaluma House was the scene of the alarm-the kitchen, or ell, ot which was discovered to be in flames. This building, as also those immediately adjoining on either side, being wooden and of the most combustible character, the flames spread rapidly, and soon cleared a space of about one hundred and twenty-five feet on Main street, notwithstanding the noble efforts put forth by the firemen to stay its course. That the fire was the work of an incendiary admits of not a doubt The hotel in which it originated had not been occupied for several weeks. The sufferers were Charles Hunt, of Peta- luma, and H. H. Parkell, of San Francisco, owners of the hotel ; B. Newman, owner of the building adjoining it on the south; Fritsch, Zartman & Co., owners of that adjoining it on the north, and the Pohelman Brothers, butch- ers, occupants of the same.
About the time that the firemen were congratulating themselves that the danger of a general conflagration had passed, and there being scarcely a breath of air stirring, notwithstanding the magnitude of the fire, they were appalled by the startling intelligence that the rear of the brick building on the east side of the street, owned by Doctor J. L. Bond, and occupied by Thomas Hagans, as a stable (the building that stopped the fire of July 3d, from sweeping that side of the street) was in flames ! Upon turning their attention to this quarter, it was found that the hay, in the shed adjoining the building and standing immediately upon the bank of the creek, had been fired, and that the flames hal already extended through the back door to the stables and roof of the brick building. All efforts to save it proved unavail- ing, and the roof soon fell in with a loud crash. The horses, carriages, and portion of the harness were removed. The loss of property- building, hay, grain, harness, etc .- is estimated at from twelve to fifteen hundred dollars. The walls of the building having been of great thickness and durability they escaped with little or no damage,
Once more we have to record the arrival of the dread messenger. On March 2d, Samuel Tustin, one of the oldest and most estcemed citizens of Petaluma, was called to cross the dark river, at the advanced age of seventy- three years. Mr. Tustin and his family were among the pioneers of this coast and State, having emigrated from Illinois to Oregon in 1847, from which point they came to California in 1849, settling at Sacramento, where he remained until 1851, when he moved to Petaluma, then an open plain, but from the bosom of which he lived to see spring into existence a numer- ous, happy and prosperous community. Having always taken an active part in all matters of a local character, upon the prerogative of a city govern- ment, he was chosen a member of the first Board of Trustees. The evening of the 19th of December was the city for the first time lit by gas, while a month earlier, the Central Flouring Mills commenced work, under the direc-
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tion of A. P. Mallory, making the third flour mill erected in the city. Among the other occurrences of the year was that of a prize-fight, which took place on the bank of the creek, about one mile below Lakeville, between Johnny Lazarus and Pete Daley.
The school census for Petaluma District during the year was as follows : Males, over four and under eighteen years of age, two hundred and seventy; females over four and under eighteen, two hundred and fifty-one; total males and females, five hundred and twenty-one. Under four years of age, two hundred and sixteen; between eighteen and twenty-one years, thirty ; under twenty-one, born in California, four hundred and seventy ; between four and six years, ninety-one; between these ages attending public school, sixty-eight; total attending public school, ninety-three; total attending private school, eighty-two; not attending any school, one hundred and forty- three ; Indian children, ten ; negro, five; deaf and dumb, three.
The first record of any interest to be found in the proceedings of the Board of Trustees for the year 1864 is the election of the Corporation, on April 18th, these being : Board of Trustees-Lee Ellsworth, William Ord- way, John Sroufe, O. Sweetland, President, and A. P. Whitney ; Recorder, G. W. Reed; Assessor, T. K. Wilson; Marshal, John Cavanagh; Treasurer, F. T. Maynard; Street Commissioner, Almon Johnson; Clerk, F. B. Colton. On the 25th, the question of a salary to the Recorder was mooted, a com- mittee was, therefore, appointed to investigate the amount of emolument received in former years by that officer, so that the rate which should be voted, might be determined. In this regard the committee reported on May 3d that the average of salaries for the past three years had not exceeded one hundred and fifty dollars, while the sums received showed a yearly decrease; it was, therefore, on motion, ordered that the salary of the Recorder of the city of Petaluma be fixed and established at one hundred and twenty-five dollars per annum.
Although the subject of railroads had been for long occupying the attention of the City Fathers, the first mention of one in their minute-book is found on May 23d, which appears in these words: "A petition was received from C. Minturn to set aside the plaza, near the Union Hotel, for a railroad depot for twenty-five years, which was laid over under the rules of procedure." On June 13th, it was taken up and read, as was also a remonstrance against the granting of the prayer of the petition, signed by T. F. Baylis & Co., and others. On motion, it was ordered that the said petition and remonstrance, and the consideration thereof be indefinitely postponed. July 25th, it was voted that the President be authorized to take the steps in his judgment proper to ascertain the amount, and what public lands the city authorities can pre-empt, and to make application for a pre-emption of the same; to this end inquiries were instituted, and a report made on August 8th, that the law enabling the Board of Trustees to pre-empt land had lately been repealed.
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HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
We find, on October 4th, the report of the City Recorder was referred back to him that he should make a more definite report, specifying each case tried with amount of fees of different officers in each, amount of fines in each and sums collected in each.
On February 19, 1864, the Sonoma County Journal issued its valedictory address, the plant and good will having been purchased by the Argus, a paper which had been previously established. In this place we will add our slight tribute of praise to the very excellent manner in which this, the father of journalistic effort in Petaluma, was conducted; we must not forget to say how thankful we are for the host of valuable information in connection with this work which we have been enabled to glean from its columns, information which it would have been impossible to arrive at save from a newspaper. In the early part of the year 1864, complaints were rife in regard to the high prices which obtained for grain, flour, hay-indeed, every article of consumption for man and beast-a circumstance then causing the most gloomy forebodings. Let us not dwell, however, on these dark pic- tures; it is sufficient for our work to record their existence; more pleasurable is it to turn to the brighter and more progressive spots in Petaluma's history. At the epoch of which we write her many churches were all in a flourishing condition, new fire companies were organized as the necessity for them arose, while the public, as well as the private schools, showed commendable pros- perity and increase in attendance. The following remarks will illustrate the roll of scholars of the public schools for the year under consideration : Num- ber of boys between four and eighteen years of age, three hundred and fifty; number of girls between the same ages, three hundred and thirty-nine; total number of white children between these ages, six hundred and eighty-nine. Number of white children under four years, three hundred and thir- teen; number between eighteen and twenty-one years, twenty-six. Num- ber of white children under twenty-one years born in California, six hundred and fifty-five; number between four and six, one hundred and forty- seven; number of white children between four and six attending school, twenty-five. Number of Indian children between four and eighteen, fifteen; number of Negro children of same age, nine. In the month of May we find the residents of the city much concerned in the matter of a bell, the story of which shall be told in as few words as possible: Several years before this period of which we write, the citizens were afflicted with a bell mania. The inhabitants of the lower portion of the city having, by contribution, pur- chased a bell for the Congregational church, those of the upper portion of the town at once determined to obtain another that would weigh more and sound louder than the one destined to call the residents of Lower Petaluma to their devotions. The result of this determination was the contributing, by divers and sundry persons, of a sum amounting to six or seven hundred dollars, which was entrusted to M. Doyle, who with it purchased the old Vigilance
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HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
Committee bell at San Francisco, the solemn cadence of which had warned Casey, Cora, and others that the time had come for them to shuffle off this mortal coil. By common consent the bell was hung in the belfrey of the First Baptist church in this city, with the conditions that it was to be used, not only as a church bell, but by the city, on all occasions when bells are usually in requisition; and in accordance with this arrangement, the city had kept a man employed to ring the bell at morning, noon and night. In consequence of the revolution which then shook the country from center to circumference, a revolution on a small scale was inaugurated in the Baptist congregation, and the result was the enacting of a set of loyal resolutions very unpalatable to the secession element of the community. On this cer- tain parties felt themselves aggrieved, foremost among whom was Mr. Doyle, and they determined that the bell should not give forth its brazen notes over a " d-d Abolition congregation;" and as he (Doyle) had invested the sum of one hundred and five dollars in the aforesaid bell, he proceeded with a posse of men, and by means of a block and tackle, hoisted the bell from the belfry, placed it on a dray, and stored it in a convenient warehouse, much to the detriment of sleepy citizens who were wont to be released from the embrace of the drowsy god by its familiar peals. The excitement consequent upon this defiant disregard of the feelings and rights of the community was for a time intense, but it subsided when it became manifest that Doyle, with his bell, occupied as unenviable a position as did the man who drew the elephant in the lottery. At a future date public opinion demanded the rehanging of the bell, it was subsequently cracked, and to-day rings out in discordant notes, in lively contrast with the other chimes which gladden the sounds of the early Sabbath morn. We will close our remarks on the year 1864 by stat- ing that once more the fire-fiend was agog-on September 9th the steamboat warehouse having been burnt to the ground, causing a loss of fully ten thousand dollars, a Bloomfield firm who were shipping a new stock of goods being the heaviest losers.
The proceedings of the municipality were inaugurated in the year 1865, by the election of a new house for engine company Sonoma No. 2, while, in conformity with a petition presented by E. Barnes, it was ordered, on the 27th March, that at the time of the election of city officers, a box should be pro- vided so that the citizens might have the opportunity of expressing their wishes in the matter of taxing the city to improve the Petaluma creek. April 15th, it was announced to the Board by Trustee Ellsworth that infor- mation had been just received of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, on the previous evening, and thereupon moved that, in respect to his memory, " the Board do now adjourn." Allusion to this dire calamity will be found further on. A petition of the heirs of the late Samuel Tustin was on the same date presented, praying that the City prison be removed from its present location, and a committee appointed to attend to the
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matter. On April 17th the under-mentioned gentlemen were chosen City
officers : Board of Trustees, O. Sweetland, President; John Sroufe, A. P. Whitney, Lee Ellsworth, and John Stewart; Recorder, Josiah Chandler ; Marshal, James K. Knowles; Treasurer, F. T. Maynard; Assessor, A. P. Mallory; Street Commissioner, A. Johnson ; Clerk, F. D. Colton. On the same date the following resolution was introduced in respect to the murder of President Lincoln : " WHEREAS, This Board, in common with the whole family of our beloved country, are called upon to mourn the decease of our honored Chief Magistrate, stricken down by the hand of an assassin, in the height of his power and usefulness, and at a time when all manly hearts yearned for a speedy restoration of peace in our land, therefore be it Resolved, That we regard the death of Abraham Lincoln a great National calamity, and view with horror the atrocity of the crime that has deprived our country of him whom we regarded as the safeguard of liberty. Resolved further, That these proceedings be entered upon our book of records, and also that we wear crape for thirty days. Resolved further, That this Board do now adjourn."
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